The Kansas City Land Bank will finally gets its chance to prove whether or not it is the answer to the cycle of blight within local neighborhoods. The land bank agency’s five-member board and city officials have held two meetings…Read more ›

CLEVELAND — The Cuyahoga Land Bank will work with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason to receive any specifically forfeited properties and demolish or re-purpose them. Last week, Mason announced the indictment of Uri Goffman on various counts of mortgage fraud.…Read more ›

On October 11, 2012, the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation (Cuyahoga Land Bank) in collaboration with the City of Rocky River completed a demolition of a long standing eyesore at the corner of Wooster Road and Shoreland. Rocky River Mayor…Read more ›

As the City of South Bend’s Vacant and Abandoned Properties Task Force puts the finishing touches on its report outlining the strategy for our community to collectively address the problem of vacant and abandoned housing in our neighborhoods, we would…Read more ›

The Cuyahoga County Land Bank is looking for alternatives now that a federal pipeline of cheap properties is drying up. WKSU’s Kabir Bhatia reports. Since 2009, the county land bank has bought abandoned or foreclosed homes from the U.S. Department…Read more ›

Second Convening of Ohio County Land Banks November 27-28, 2012 Independence, Ohio 2012 Conference Notes Thanks to everyone who attended the 2012 conference. You helped make it a huge success. Thriving Communities Institute and Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation…Read more ›

CLEVELAND, Ohio — House prices continue to outstrip last year’s levels, a much-watched report shows. Never prone to boom or bust, Cleveland isn’t seeing a dramatic spike. But an index of prices for single-family homes in the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor area was…Read more ›

180,817 homes received foreclosure filings in November, down 3 percent from the previous month, and 19 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac’s foreclosure report. The drop in foreclosure activity was largely driven by a drop in foreclosure starts…Read more ›

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is back in the predatory flipping business — destabilizing neighborhoods, eviscerating property values and leaving cash-strapped cities such as Cleveland to clean up the mess. Why would a taxpayer-supported federal agency whose mission…Read more ›

Lou Tisler sums up the mission of Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland with a simple but meaningful phrase: “Home matters.” He has been executive director for 71/2 years at the nonprofit based in Cleveland’s North Broadway neighborhood. The group,…Read more ›

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Since 2009, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has sold low-value, foreclosed and vacant properties to the Cuyahoga County Land Bank for $100 a piece — an effort to stabilize neighborhoods by keeping blighted houses…Read more ›

CLEVELAND – Officials with the U.S.. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) say they can no longer afford to sell distressed properties to the Cuyahoga Land Bank and other agencies for $100. HUD announced it will not renew its…Read more ›

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has cancelled a contract under which it sold foreclosed homes worth up to $30,000 to a Cleveland-based land bank for $100 each, saying it can get more for the homes on the…Read more ›

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been selling foreclosed and vacant properties to the Cuyahoga County Land Bank for $100 each. The program has helped keep damaged homes off the market and away from real estate…Read more ›

Cuyahoga Landbank has partnered with Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to build two new buildings in the city with the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) money. A ground breaking was held this year for the Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD)…Read more ›

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Long gone from the local real estate scene, George and Teresa Kastanes continue to make life miserable for local officials dealing with the aftermath of their flipping schemes. The Kastanes blew into town like so many other…Read more ›

The Cuyahoga Land Bank partnered with the City of South Euclid, Purple Heart Homes and One South Euclid to provide a home for a combat wounded Iraq War veteran. Demond Taylor, who served our country from September 2001 to July…Read more ›

One lucky refugee family will get a shot at the American Dream in Lakewood. That’s thanks to a new partnership between the Cuyahoga County Land Bank and the International Services Center to provide housing to immigrants. Along with the…Read more ›

The intensity stirred by the issue of foreclosed properties, bank walk-aways, vacant, poorly maintained and otherwise troubled properties in our neighborhoods was evident at the Neighbor-2-Neighbor Autumn meeting held on Nov. 27. The date coincided with the first anniversary of…Read more ›

The Cuyahoga Land Bank has recently launched an Owner Occupant Buyer Advantage Program designed to make it easier for individuals and families interested in getting a great deal on a property to own and live in. The new initiative is…Read more ›

The Ohio Attorney General distributed $11.8 million in matching funds ($6.8 million from the Land Bank, $5 million from the Cuyahoga Prosecutor) for demolition to Cuyahoga County, which the Land Bank is administering. Cuyahoga Land Bank President Gus Frangos and…Read more ›

Cuyahoga Land Bank featured in the NHS Newsletter Thank you to Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland (NHS) for highlighting the Cuyahoga Land Bank’s available home ownership programs in their November newsletter. Partnerships within the community, such as the one…Read more ›

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland and Cuyahoga County hope to get at least $12.5 million in demolition money from a nationwide settlement with mortgage servicers. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine visited Cleveland on Friday to tout a new $75 million demolition…Read more ›

‘BURY THE DEAD’ Rokakis became an unlikely champion of demolition over rehabbing the abandoned houses. “By 2007, it became obvious to me that this was a war,” Rokakis told National Journal. “We had lost. And now we had to bury…Read more ›

(CLEVELAND)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today joined Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and other Cuyahoga County Officials at the demolition of an abandoned house made possible by a grant from his Demolition Grant Program. The property at 6179 Morton Avenue in…Read more ›

Abandoned and foreclosed homes in the state are being demolished at a steady rate, thanks largely to a $75 million settlement Ohio’s Attorney General secured earlier this year. The idea is to curb blight and crime by razing old homes.…Read more ›

FORECLOSURES are taking significantly longer in states where lenders must go through the courts, and the delay may or may not be good for borrowers, depending on their circumstances. But some researchers say that dragging the process out hurts society…Read more ›

The Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation, commonly known as the Cuyahoga Land Bank, has reached the mid-way point of a ground-breaking agreement with Bank of America (BoA) for responsible disposition of distressed properties. On June 14, 2011, BoA agreed to…Read more ›

The Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation, commonly known as the Cuyahoga Land Bank, has reached the mid-way point of a ground-breaking agreement with Bank of America (BoA) for responsible disposition of distressed properties. On June 14, 2011, BoA agreed to…Read more ›